1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic transfer system for electronic mail and, more particularly, is directed to an e-mail system that automatically alters destination addresses when a senders address book includes a transfer indication keyword.
2. Description of the Related Art
Automatic transfer of electronic mail (e-mail) allows mail sent from a sender to one user to be automatically transferred to another user. The need for automatic transfer arises, for example, when an electronic mail user cannot attend to received electronic mail due to a long term absence in which case the user's mail needs to be forwarded to another user who has been appointed as a proxy.
To effect an automatic transfer of mail, typically either the user or system manager must set up the transfer operation using a specialized method or program. In general, the need to set up an automatic transfer of electronic mail arises infrequently. Thus, the user typically has no or very little experience in setting up the automatic transfer operation. It is also difficult for a user who has no previous experience in automatically transferring mail, to learn for the first time the method required for setting-up the automatic transfer of e-mail. An additional burden can also be placed on the e-mail system manager who must in certain cases set up the operation and collect the user's data. In conventional electronic mail systems, the set up operation for initializing the transfer of e-mail to a different destination is done manually using a program specialized for the task.